A quality physical education program involves more than just getting kids to move for a set amount of time during the school day, experts say. PE classes can teach lessons not found in any other classroom, Erika Mundt, a PE teacher at Iowa West City High School in Iowa. “A successful PE program can literally change the way a school functions as a whole,” said Mundt, who was the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America High School PE Teacher of the Year in 2018. “PE involves cooperative learning, acceptance of yourself and others, learning to try new things no matter how good you are, communication, and problem-solving,” Mundt added in a news release from the National Education Association. That’s not to downplay the need for exercise. Physical activity during the school day is essential for student mental health, Mundt said, particularly following the pandemic. “I just hope that school districts and administrators take into consideration PE when they are trying to catch up with the pandemic and realizing that cutting PE and cutting activity time isn’t the way to get students to learn more,” Mundt said. “PE is an efficient way to help kids learn more.” Kids learn more and stress less when they take PE, said Cara Grant, president-elect of SHAPE America. “As young as early elementary school, students discover how physical…  read on >  read on >

Folks can overcome their genetic risk for type 2 diabetes through healthy diet and regular exercise, a new study says. A healthy lifestyle reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 70% among a group of people with a high genetic likelihood of developing the metabolic disorder, researchers found. In fact, healthy behaviors had a greater impact on their risk than it did for people with a low genetic propensity for type 2 diabetes, results showed. A healthy diet and exercise had a statistically insignificant impact on the diabetes risk of those with low-risk genetics, researchers found. Nevertheless, “these findings encourage everyone to make lifestyle changes that promote health,” said lead researcher Maria Lankinen, a lecturer in nutrition with the University of Eastern Finland. That’s because all participants tended to achieve better blood sugar control and lost weight if they engaged in a healthy lifestyle, researchers said. The three-year study involved nearly 1,000 men ages 50 to 75 in eastern Finland. More than 600 of the men received guidance on healthy lifestyle, while the rest served as a control group. Genetic risk was determined based on 76 gene variants known to increase risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers said. However, during the study neither the participants nor the researchers knew to which risk group each individual belonged. Men receiving the lifestyle guidance significantly improved the…  read on >  read on >

Many people with disabilities aren’t getting the exercise they need because fitness centers don’t offer adaptive equipment or staff trained in helping the disabled, a new review finds. There are few efforts by most commercial gyms to promote fitness for people with disabilities, said review author Alexandra Jamieson, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute. “The biggest barriers to fitness are accessibility and cost,” Jamieson said in a university news release. “Standard gyms are not legally required to have adaptive machines for users of differing abilities. Plus, there is generally a lack of data about the demand for these adaptive machines that would help gyms justify the higher costs of adding them.” About one in every six people (16%) live with a significant disability that affects their daily life, researchers wrote. But only about 40% of the disabled engage in regular physical activity, the review noted. As a result, they’re more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes or cancer, and are at higher risk for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. “Many people with disabilities struggle with psychological issues such as low self-esteem and negative body image, which can further reduce their motivation to participate in exercise activities, especially in public places like gyms,” Jamieson said. On top of not having the proper equipment and…  read on >  read on >

A popular tactic among weight lifters is “training to failure” — pushing yourself to the point where you can’t do a single more rep. That might help a person grow bigger muscles, but won’t necessarily increase their overall strength, a new review published recently in the journal Sports Medicine finds. People who stop their sets before their muscles completely give out will experience an improvement in strength similar to that of folks who train to failure, researchers found. However, muscle size does benefit from training to failure, results showed. The closer a person is to failure when they stop their reps, the more muscle growth they tend to see. “If you’re aiming for muscle growth, training closer to failure might be more effective,” said senior researcher Michael Zourdos, chair of the Florida Atlantic University Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion. “For strength, how close you push to failure doesn’t seem to matter as much.” For the review, researchers analyzed data from 55 prior studies that examined people’s repetitions in reserve, which means the number of additional reps a person could have performed before reaching muscle failure. Results show that people who want to build muscle should train close to failure, which will optimize muscle growth while minimizing the risk of injury, researchers said. For strength training, people should focus on lifting increasingly heavier loads,…  read on >  read on >

Almost 60% of adult Americans said they took a walk over the past week for leisure, and maybe even some healthy exercise, a new federal tally finds. Data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, a representative sampling of U.S. households, found that last year “58.7% of adults walked for leisure in the past 7 days,” although just who was walking and who stayed on the couch varied. Gender made a difference: While 60.5% of women said they walked for leisure, that was true for 56.9% of men.  Younger Americans were more likely to perambulate for pleasure than older generations.   “The percentage of adults who walked for leisure decreased with increasing age, from 61.8% of adults ages 18-44 and 59.1% of adults ages 45-64 to 51.6% of adults age 65 and older,” say a team led by Dzifa Adjaye-Gbewonyo of the CDC National Center for Health Statistics.  Income seemed to matter: As incomes rose, the percentage of people who said they regularly walked for leisure climbed as well. For example, while more than two-thirds of people (67.2%) in the wealthiest tier did so, that fell to less than half (46.9%) for adults with family incomes below the federal poverty level, the report found. Similar trends were seen with education, with the more highly educated walking for pleasure and exercise more often than less-educated adults.…  read on >  read on >

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles vowed to continue her quest for Olympic gold after injuring her calf in a qualifying round at the Paris games. Meanwhile, a thigh injury forced French soccer captain Wendie Renardout of competition in a loss to Canada. And the L.A. Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard was forced to sit out the games entirely due to inflammation in his right knee, which was injured twice before. While Olympic athletes can make their sports look effortless, constant overuse of muscles and tendons can lead to big-time injuries that do more than cost them a medal, according to an orthopedic expert from Baylor College of Medicine. And the risks run through all sports — from gymnastics and distance running to swimming. Biles’ comeback after withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo games has been a major focus of U.S. fans during the 2024 games. She’s competing in four events — vault, floor, beam and all-around.   “Gymnasts are subjected to tremendous physical demands, and the repetitive nature of their trainings and performances increase the risk of injuries throughout the body,” said Dr. Jet Liu, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor in Houston, who detailed the most common injuries in popular Olympic sports.  For gymnasts, knee sprains, strains and torn ACL ligaments can result from high-impact jumps, flips and dismounts, he said. Ankle injuries are a common…  read on >  read on >

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United States, particularly among older adults. It’s also a quick way for seniors to hurt themselves, unless they watch their form and warm up properly, experts say. “We are seeing an epidemic of pickleball Achilles tendon injuries,” said Dr. Timothy Charlton, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “Pickleball is really fun, and I encourage anyone to play it, but it’s important to do so in a healthy way,” Charlton added in a Cedars-Sinai news release. “We’re seeing many injuries because new athletes are returning to the court after a long time away or are starting to play competitively without proper training. This creates an environment where injuries are more likely to occur.” More than 13 million people have picked up pickleball, with a 200% increase in participation in the past three years, Cedars-Sinai experts said. Unfortunately, with that has come an increase in injuries. Pickleball injuries in the United States accounted for more than $350 million in medical costs in 2023, experts said. In particular, doctors are seeing a significant number of Achilles tendon ruptures among people ages 60 to 70, particularly among women, Charlton said. “This increase in injuries is largely due to the rapid rise in the number of people playing pickleball, often without adequate preparation or conditioning,” Charlton said. The Achilles…  read on >  read on >